The Liberty Square Apartments complex on Naylor-Lloyd Road used to have four buildings, but several arsons over the past few years have left just one standing, along with a garage. The most recent arson occurred July 6.

The buildings have been empty for years, but tearing them down has been cost prohibitive for the township because of the size of the project.

“By the arsonist doing us a favor and reducing it to one, it became something that was acceptable financially,” said Liberty Township Administrator Pat Ungaro.

Now township officials are addressing numerous neighbor complaints about the property, by finalizing plans to tear the rest of it down. Trumbull County funds, supplied by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, will cover the approximately $85,000 cost of removing asbestos from the remaining building.

After that, the Liberty Township Fire Department will finish the job with a controlled burn.

“It’s been a long, frustrating road for the people and for the trustees and I’m happy to say hopefully within the next 30 days, it’ll be a happy ending,” Ungaro said.

Once cleared, the property will go to the Trumbull County Land Bank. Ungaro said he’d like to get it back and do something with it.

“Some people say it’s a good central fire station location. It could be utilized for development, it could be a park. It could be a lot of things, other than what it is right now, which is pretty pathetic,” Ungaro said.